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Qatari Defence Ministry also says seven ballistic missiles and five drones fired by Iran were intercepted.
Published On 2 Mar 2026
Qatar’s air force has “successfully shot down” two Iranian fighter aircraft, the country’s government says, as the fallout from the United States and Israeli attacks on Iran, and Iranian retaliation, grows across the wider Middle East.
The Qatari Defence Ministry said in a statement on Monday that the air force downed two SU-24 aircraft while seven ballistic missiles and five drones fired by Iran were also intercepted.
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“The threat was addressed immediately upon detection, in accordance with the operational plan, as all missiles were shot down before reaching their targets,” the ministry said.
The Gulf country had condemned Iran for its “reckless and irresponsible” targeting of Qatari territory in response to US-Israeli attacks that have killed hundreds of people across Iran since Saturday.
Iran has launched a series of retaliatory strikes on targets in Qatar, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and other countries in recent days.
Reporting from the Qatari capital Doha, Al Jazeera’s Zein Basravi said the downing of the Iranian aircraft marks “a major military escalation”.
“This represents perhaps the beginning of air-to-air combat, and that is a serious escalation in a conflict that is already spiralling three days in,” Basravi said.
Iran did not immediately comment on the Qatari Defence Ministry’s statement on Monday.
A spokesman for Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs recently said the country has the right to defend itself “with all might” in response to the US-Israel attacks, which have killed several senior Iranian officials, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei told Al Jazeera in an interview on Saturday that the Iranian armed forces were “defending national sovereignty and the territorial integrity of Iran against these barbaric acts of aggression”.
But the Iranian attacks on US and Israeli targets across the Middle East have drawn condemnation while raising concerns about a widening of the conflict.
In a joint statement on Sunday, several countries in the region, as well as the US, condemned what they described as Iran’s “indiscriminate and reckless missile and drone attacks against sovereign territories across the region”.
“These unjustified strikes targeted sovereign territory, endangered civilian populations, and damaged civilian infrastructure,” the countries said, adding that they reaffirmed their “right to self-defence in the face of these attacks”.
Attacks on energy infrastructure
The Iranian strikes have also affected energy production in the Gulf region, with Qatar’s state-run energy firm on Monday announcing a halt to liquefied natural gas (LNG) production due to the attacks.
The shutdown caused benchmark Dutch and British wholesale gas prices to soar by almost 50 percent, while benchmark Asian LNG prices jumped almost 39 percent.
Separately, the Saudi Ministry of Defence said two drones had “attempted to attack” the Ras Tanura refinery on Monday morning and a “small” fire had broken out after they were intercepted, according to the state-run Saudi Press Agency (SPA).
Footage verified by Al Jazeera showed plumes of smoke rising from the oil facility, located on Saudi Arabia’s Gulf coast.
Hassan Ahmadian, an assistant professor at the University of Tehran, said the attacks on energy infrastructure are part of the country’s push to target “US interests in the region”.
The strikes aim to “ratchet up the pressure to force the United States to rethink its aggression against the country through driving up prices of oil and energy prices globally”, Ahmadian told Al Jazeera.
